Lesson: Plate Tectonics

Warm Ups, etc:

Earth's Structure (includes blank crust diagram!)

Lecture Notes: #content

Handout & Presentation - Continental Drift

Plate Tectonics, Faults and Hot Spots (cloze handout)

The theory of Plate Tectonics states...that the earth's crust is broken into "plates" which move and interact

Plates are made of... the Lithosphere - the crust/upper mantle

...and they float on the... Asthenosphere- plastic-like area of flow within the mantle

There are many plates: a few are considered major and most are considered minor plates. (DEBATE)

Plates can interact in three ways:

1. Spread apart

2. Collide or come together

3. Move past one another

"Mountain building, earthquakes, and volcanoes are known as tectonic activity."

The force behind Plate Tectonics is believed to be convection currents.

Describe how this force drives Plate Tectonics. Warm magma is less dense and rises at spreading centers. It moves and pushes under plates and cools and sinks at subduction zones.

DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES - where plates are moving apart

ocean & ocean

features - mid-ocean ridge, spreading center

example- Mid-Atlantic Ridge

continental & continental

features - rift zone, rift valley

example - Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa

Fault Type: NORMAL

CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES - where plates are moving together

ocean & ocean

features - trenches, volcanic island arcs

example- Japan, Indonesia, Aleutian Islands

ocean & continental

features - trenches, volcanic mountains

example - Andes, Cascade Range of US NW

continental & continental

features - mountain building

example - Himalayas, Ancient Appalachians

Fault Type: REVERSE

TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES - where plates move past one another

describe: plate motion is opposite relative to each side

example: San Andreas Fault, California

HOT SPOTS

describe: plate moving over a magma plume

examples- Hawai'i and Emporer Seamounts, Bermuda

Objectives and Vocabulary: #content

Activities, Assignments, Etc.

Closure: Chart - Faults, etc.